Friday, August 29, 2008

Oh Happy Day...

We're proud conservatives. We believe in the principles of conservatism. John McCain wasn't our first choice for the Republican candidate. He's more moderate in his politics than we are, but, then, it's hard to find any candidate who completely matches your views.

We've heard political pundits say that the vice president rarely makes or breaks a presidential candidate, but for us, the vice president pick was the deciding factor as to whether or not McCain received our vote.

You can only make so many compromises before you sell out your own values. The breaking point for us would have been a Joe Lieberman pick and maybe even a Tom Ridge pick. We anxiously awaited McCain's running mate announcement, and we couldn't be more pleased.

We don't know a lot about Sarah Palin, but what we know, we like and approve. Was picking a woman politically motivated? Of course. But aren't all running mate choices politically motivated? If they aren't, they ought to be. We assume that Barack Obama's choice of Joe Biden as a running mate was politically motivated. If it wasn't, then we have to question what Barack's motives are for running for political office. He might as well be running for ice cream vendor if he has no political motivation.

Based on what we know of Sarah Palin, she was a brilliant choice. A big factor is that she's a governor. A governor is always a better choice for president than a senator. Governing a state has many similarities to running a country. Of course, there are some issues unique to being the president of the United States; only the current and former presidents can understand those issues. But a governor has to veto bills and balance a budget, they take care of emergency situations in their respective states and activate the National Guard, and they are responsible for appointing some key personnel positions within their states. They also receive appeals for death row inmates within their states, literally holding the choice of life and death within their hands. A senator is one person in a voting body who governs nothing but his or her office. Unfortunately, we don't have a governor running for president, but we do have Sarah Palin to advise McCain.

Liberals will tell you that Sarah Palin doesn't have enough experience -- that John McCain is being hypocritical by choosing Palin while criticizing Barack Obama's lack of experience. Being a Governor edges out a Senator any day. Sarah Palin has made more decisions in the last two years as governor than Barack Obama has made in his life (okay, that may be an exaggeration, but if it is, it's barely one). And Barack can't criticize her lack of experience without drawing attention to his own experience, which is oh... NONE.

Barack is the one who talks about hope and change and then he picks a tired career politician for a running mate. Where's the hope in that choice and how does that define change? We would rather have a President Palin than a President Biden.

Governor Palin is a pro-life woman who chose to have and keep a down syndrome baby, even though she knew there was a problem with the baby while the baby was still in the womb. To paraphrase her words, to her the baby is perfect. Who defines what a normal child is?

Todd Palin, Sarah's husband, works in the oil fields and is a member of The Steelworkers Union. Sarah's parents are educators. She is a lifetime NRA member; her son is being deployed to Irag on September 11.

Members of the media stated today that John McCain's VP choice doesn't back up his maverick image. We disagree. Sarah Palin is a maverick in her own right. She took on the corruption in her own Republican party and re-established ethics in politics. Now that is change that we can vote for. Barack only talks about change; Sarah has actually done it.

With VP experience on her resume, Sarah Palin will be able to run for President -- possibly against Hillary Clinton. Then we'll see who has the real experience.

We couldn't be more pleased with this choice and, hopefully, we will have no reason to change our minds as the election gets closer. Unlike Michelle Obama, we've always been proud of our country, but there have been times when our hope for the future of this country has been low. Thank you, John McCain, for giving us new hope today.

In non-political news, we are heading to Utah this afternoon. We don't have internet service in Utah, so we won't be posting again until Monday.